Load Regulation of Cardiac Muscle

Abstract

The intent of this review is to discuss briefly the recent work, both in my laboratory and in the laboratories of my colleagues, which tends to suggest a primary role of hemodynamic load in the regulation of the structure, composition and function of adult mammalian myocardium. Taken as a whole, this body of work supports the concept that the initiation of normal cardiac growth and development, the maintenance of normal cardiac properties in the adult, and the transition from normal to abnormal heart muscle during sustained hemodynamic alterations are each directly related to the environment of systolic and diastolic stress and strain to which the cardiocytes comprising ventricular myocardium are exposed.